5 Big Organizations Winning with Design Thinking

The push for design thinking has transformed it from a niche buzzword into a human-centered process, one that is now helping businesses generate the ideas and solutions they need to evolve and grow.

Companies big and small are drawing on design thinking frameworks to jolt innovative ideas. Here are 5 big organizations that realize how design thinking unlocks creativity to drive bottom-line business outcomes. They’ve invested in either in-house innovation labs or worked with firms to help them implement design thinking practices.

1) IBM

Source: IBM.com

IBM Design Thinking is the company’s in-house innovation lab that is helping companies tackle their challenges by innovating and creating human-centered solutions that will elevate the customer experience. IBM Design Thinking has 30 studio spaces allocated for design thinking where people get together, put up lots of post-it notes on whiteboards, and collaborate on various ideas.

IBM’s design thinking principles are to follow your user, measure success, and stay curious. The application of design thinking played a central role in IBM’s famous (in the design world) Blue Mix project.

2) MassMutual

Source: fastcompany.com

The insurance company MassMutual was looking for a way to convince young adults to buy life insurance. Determined to design for action, MassMutual teamed up with the design firm IDEO to create a program to persuade people under 40 to purchase for life insurance.

The result of the partnership is a program called the “Society of Grownups,” which was conceived as an Master’s program for adults. It resembles an online class with digital budgeting and financial tools plus a curriculum for investing.

4) Fidelity

The three foundations of Fidelity Labs’ design thinking methodology are “scan,” “try,” and “scale.” They first “scan” across industries to find opportunities for innovation, then “try” to quickly prototype and test products with customers, and finally “scale” by identifying opportunities and delivering them to their 22 million customers and partners.

5) Intuit

Source: intuitlabs.com

Intuit, who we have worked with in the past, also uses design thinking in Intuit Labs, a “new media and a high-tech playground for our early adopters.” This innovator’s playground employs a design thinking framework.

One of Intuit Labs’ teams decided to apply design thinking principles to coach a group of 8th graders at a donation based private school, “which aims at breaking the cycle of poverty and keeping kids on track.” Applying their Design for Delight methodology (part of Intuit Labs’ own design thinking process), the team helped the students grow an organic garden and then sell the produce.

The students rapidly went from not even knowing what a farmer’s market was to developing a produce business model, selling more than $250 of product in the first quarter.

Thanks to Intuit Labs, the young students received a hands-on education on how to innovate and prototype by using design thinking principles.